The Tanker War
Normally a fifth of the world's oil squeezes through a strait 39 kilometres wide — and in September 2026 the United States and Iran started hitting each other's tankers in it.
One gap
Almost every barrel pumped around the **Persian Gulf** leaves the same way. It goes out through the **Strait of Hormuz**, which at its narrowest is 39 kilometres wide. In a normal year about a fifth of the oil the world burns passes through it. Only Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pipelines that go around it, and together they could carry about a sixth of the usual flow.
Claim (consensus): Hormuz is about 39 km (21 nautical miles) wide at its narrowest and in 2024 carried about 20% of world petroleum liquids consumption; the Saudi and Emirati bypass pipelines have roughly 3.5 million barrels a day of unused capacity, about a sixth of normal flows.
Tanker for tanker
Since the strikes on **Iran** began on 28 February 2026, the strait has been largely shut. In August, tankers linked to the **United Arab Emirates** were hit near it. On 1 September US drones hit Iranian government tankers in reply, a policy a US official called "tanker for tanker". And Iran's own oil leaves from **Kharg Island**, inside the same Gulf, through the same gap.
Claim (consensus): Hormuz traffic has been largely blocked since the US–Israeli strikes on Iran began on 28 February 2026; after attacks on UAE-linked tankers in August, the US struck Iranian tankers from 1 September under what an official called a "tanker for tanker" policy, including one off Kharg Island on 5 September.
It has happened before
In the 1980s **Iran** and **Iraq** spent years attacking each other's tankers. In July 1987 the first tanker in a US-escorted convoy, the Bridgeton, hit an Iranian mine. The warships escorting it fell in behind the tanker and let its hull lead them through. In a strait this narrow, the coast decides who can reach the ships.
Claim (consensus): During the Iran–Iraq "tanker war", the reflagged Kuwaiti supertanker Bridgeton struck an Iranian mine near Farsi Island on 24 July 1987 on the first US-escorted Earnest Will convoy; the escorting warships then followed in its wake.
Sources
- IEA: Strait of Hormuz — 21 nautical miles (39 km) at its narrowest; 2-mile lanes and buffer
- EIA: the Strait of Hormuz carried about 20% of world petroleum liquids consumption in 2024
- EIA: about a fifth of global LNG trade passed Hormuz in 2024
- EIA press release, 7 April 2026: Hormuz disruption
- Axios, 2 September 2026: US strikes Iranian tankers — a 'tanker for tanker' policy
- CNN, 5 September 2026: US hits three Iranian tankers after missiles fired at US ships
- Al Jazeera, 14 August 2026: UAE accuses Iran of attacks on two ADNOC-linked tankers
- UPI archive, 24 July 1987: the reflagged Bridgeton hits a mine in the first US convoy